


Reputation and Eyeballs

by lalalathisisme



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Grease AU, High School AU, Human AU, M/M, Underage Drinking, all the boys are t-birds, all the girls are pink ladies, and stiles is a pink lady, background Allison/Scott, background Boyd/Erica, background Lydia/Jackson, cool older sister Laura
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-22
Updated: 2013-09-28
Packaged: 2017-12-21 00:15:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/893565
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lalalathisisme/pseuds/lalalathisisme
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>And Stiles almost wants to talk to him, but he then remembers - reputation and eyeballs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I started making a post about how SOMEBODY NEEDS TO PLEASE WRITE ME a Grease!Teen Wolf fic and then I got about 2/3rds the way through word vomiting what would happen and then decided “fuck it” and wrote it out. I’m too lazy to be smart myself so I’ve pulled bits from Grease, High School Musical, Clueless, and Harry Potter, because, well, it fits. Un beta’d because this is me. There’s a chance I keep changing tenses because I frequently have a problem with that. If you catch any glaring mistakes or tense problems that make you think “my god did this girl EVER take an English class?” comment and let me know. I won’t be offended. 
> 
> I don't own Teen Wolf, or HSM, or Grease, Clueless or HP.

_“In the morning mist two lovers kissed and the world stood still. Then your fingers touched my silent heart and taught it how to sing. Yes, true love's a many splendored thing.”_

xxx

Beacon Hills looked the same as it did 10 years ago when he was here last, but small towns never seem to change, at least according to movies, TV shows, and now, real life. Stiles flopped down on his front porch, board shorts and his t-shirt already clinging to his body in sweat, and it was only 8:00am in the morning. His dad had just left the house for work, and Stiles was…bored. He’s a 16-year-old boy in a town that he knows but doesn’t know him. He checked his phone for new messages before he remembered that there wouldn’t be any. He and his father moved back to Beacon Hills 2 months ago because his father had gotten an offer to be the Sheriff and since his mother passed, his dad decided that they had nothing holding them to Boston anymore. So they moved. Stiles is glad that his dad has transferred back into the BH Police Force seamlessly, some of the really old officers still remember him, and he’s less stressed about getting a call saying that his only son had been mugged (because, small towns man, NOTHING ever happens.) So Stiles spent the summer at the beach. Sure, it was almost a 2-hour drive away, but he didn’t have anything better to do. Besides, hot guys went to the beach. Like Derek. Who he hasn’t talked to since last weekend when Stiles told him that he was going back to school and so this ~thing~ that they were having was over for now.

_“I'm going back to school; I won’t see you until next summer at least.”_  
 _“Don't... don't talk that way, Stiles.” Derek chastised, rolling his eyes at how dramatic Stiles was being._  
 _“But it's true! I've just had the best summer of my life, and now I have to go away. It isn't fair.” Derek started to laugh, pulling Stiles in for another kiss. “Derek, don't spoil it!” Stiles pushed Derek back._  
 _“It's not spoiling it, Stiles, it's only making it better.”_  
 _“Is this the end?” Stiles asked._  
 _“Of course not; it's only the beginning. See you next summer.” Derek pulled Stiles in for one last biting kiss._  


Stiles was pulled out of his reverie by the sound of a neighbor’s dog barking. Figures Stiles would find a friend, an almost boyfriend type thing, with someone, who for all he knows is a 25 year old guy, who would drown him in the ocean if he found out Stiles was only 16. They never talked about ages. Stiles is almost positive Derek thinks Stiles is in college. There was just never a time for Stiles to just say “by the way, you look like you’re over 18, but I’m only 16. I hope that doesn’t put you off – let’s kiss.” Also Stiles has never been good at guessing ages. TV shows and movies lie.

xxx

The first day of sophomore year, Stiles is a wreck. He’s cool, he’s calm, he’s collected, he’s having a panic attack in his bathroom and he’s glad his dad had an early shift and isn’t around to see him run around his room like a chicken with his head cut off because he suddenly remembers every movie and TV show he’s ever watched about a kid transferring into high school with no friends. Those kids are losers. Stiles is going to be a loser. Great. Stiles finally calms down enough to smack some sense into himself. He can hear his father in his head saying that “if the kids at Beacon Hills can’t see how awesome he is, they can go jump off of a cliff.” Stiles shakes his dad out of his head, grabs his stuff, hops into his jeep, and drives to school.

School is school, no matter where you are, and BHHS is no different from his school back in Boston, only back in Boston he has friends, and here there are just a lot of seniors who look like they could be teachers, and brilliant and beautiful girls. Like the girl who just rolled her eyes at Stiles for smiling at her. Stiles made a mental note to not try to befriend her then. Brilliant and Beautiful gets called up to the board to answer a question, and Stiles tries (and fails spectacularly) not to stare at her as she click-clacks up to the board to answer the question, quickly solving the problem with an ease that says ‘I know exactly how to solve this.’ She finished solving the problem, setting the piece of chalk down before strutting back to her seat. Stiles couldn’t help but stare.

“Wait, shouldn’t that be 16 over pi?” He mused out loud, his brain finally focusing on the problem on the board and not on the girl who solved it.  
“Excuse me?” Stiles whipped his head around to stare at Brilliant and Beautiful who was staring at him with a mixture of annoyance and intrigue.  
“Ah, it’s an easy mistake to make, but I’m pretty sure your second equation should read 16 over pi.” The amount of snickers in the class and even the eye roll of his teacher clues Stiles in to think that maybe this girl is the smartest in the class.  
“Please.” She says shortly, before whipping out her calculator, her nails click-clacking on the keys similarly to the way her heels clacked across the floor. The room fell silent and Stiles turned back around to see her frowning down at the calculator before lifting her head up at Stiles to give him a piercing stare. “I stand corrected.” She flashes Stiles a smile, the kind that makes Stiles think he’s going to end up dead in the dumpster by lunch. He absolutely does not wince at that thought, flashing the girl what he hoped was a “please don’t kill me” smile. Loser status: secured.  


Stiles is packing up his stuff after class when he hears the click-clack of heels coming close to him, before stopping right in front of his desk.  
“I’m Lydia.” Stiles jerks his head up in surprise.  
“Stiles?” he didn’t mean for it to come out as a question, but he’s not really sure what’s happening right now.  
“How the hell should I know what your name is?” she – Lydia, pursed her lips, looking annoyed.  
“Yeah, sorry. I’m Stiles. I just moved here.”  
“Obviously. Beacon Hills is a small town. Nothing here ever changes.”  
“Right.” Stiles stood up, hoisting his backpack onto his back, feeling awkward. Lydia just rolls her eyes.  
“So, you’re obviously smart, which can get you labeled a geek real quick and you’re already at a disadvantage of being a new kid, so unless you hang out with the right people, you’re going to be a loser until you graduate. I see something in you.”  
“Uh, you looked like you stepped in dog poo when I tried to wave to you earlier.”  
“People don’t challenge me. You don’t know me, but you know I’m the kind of girl that people don’t challenge. But you did anyway. You want to be a loser in high school? Fine with me.” Lydia flipped her hair and started to walk away, Stiles barely tripping over himself to catch up with her.  
“I’d rather not be labeled a loser quite yet, thanks.” Stiles throws his arm around Lydia’s shoulders, like they’re best friends already. She stops walking, throws Stiles’ arm off of her.  
“We don’t do that. Come on.” Stiles shrugged, jogging to keep up with her, following her to the cafeteria and over to a table with three other girls, all extremely gorgeous.  


“Stiles, this is Erica, Allison, and Cora. Girls, this is Stiles. He thinks he knows math better than me. He just got lucky.” Lydia pushed Stiles towards the girls before turning on her heel to go somewhere, presumably to get food. Stiles stumbles before sitting down next to the girl he thinks is Allison.  
“So. You’re ballsy.” Erica? Says to him, flashing him a kind of frightening smile before digging into her lunch.  
“Erica, don’t be mean. Lydia has enough poison for all of us.” The girl next to Stiles says before turning towards Stiles. “I’m Allison. Blondie is Erica and that’s Cora.” Stiles nods along to the introductions. “Cool. Well, I’m Stiles, I just moved here from Boston.”  
“What the hell kind of name is Stiles?” Cora asked in a bored voice.  
“The kind of name that I chose for myself because my real name is basically impossible to pronounce.”  
“It’s still a dumb name.”  
“Well good thing it’s not yours then, huh?” Stiles countered, causing Erica to laugh.  
“So, Boston? Why move out here?” Allison asked.  
“My dad is the new Sheriff.”  
“Really.” Erica commented, smirking. “Pretty sure I saw him the other day, he could use his handcuffs on me any day.” Stiles blushed, letting his head drop onto the table.  
“Oh Erica.” Allison swatted at Erica. “The new Sheriff has been around for 2 months. How come we haven’t seen you lurking around town?”  
“I spent my summer at the beach. Met a guy there.” Stiles flushed again.  
“Hauled your cookies all the way to the beach for some guy? Must have been some guy.” Lydia dropped her lunch tray down on the table, sliding next to Erica.  
“He was really hot. But we kind of decided to end it for now because I’m like 80% sure he’s too old for me.” Stiles let his mind wander for a moment, remembering the way Derek looked the last time he saw him.  
“Oy, lover boy.” Erica snapped her fingers in front of Stiles’ face. “This hottie got a name?”  
“Derek. Derek Hale.” Erica almost snorted on her mac n cheese, Cora spit out her juice, coughing, and Lydia and Allison both shared a look across the table.  
“Well. California isn’t that big of a state, maybe you’ll run into him again, sometime unexpected.” Erica said, before picking up her tray. “Come on Cora, I need to touch up my make up.” Stiles seemed to miss the way all four girls all became awkward at one time.  
“You really think I might see him again?” Stiles asked Allison.  
“Uh sure. Also, who knows about his age? Maybe he’s just one of those guys that looks old.”  


Stiles made it through the rest of the first day without a hitch – no one else really talked to him, but no one pushed him down a staircase so Stiles considered the day to be a win. He grabbed his books and headed out to his car, only to be stopped by Lydia.  
“Cora’s older sister is throwing a party tonight. You’re coming with us.”  
“Do I have a choice?”  
“No. I’ll come pick you up at 9:00pm.”  
“I have my own car.” Stiles waved his hand proudly at his jeep. Lydia looked it up and down before deciding that she’d rather lick the underside of a bleacher than get into that car.  
“I’ll pick you up at 9:00pm.” She repeated before waving to Stiles and walking away.  
“It’s ok baby, she didn’t mean that.” Stiles patted his jeep before jumping in and driving home to get started on his schoolwork.  


xxx

Lydia arrives precisely at 9:00pm on the dot. She tsks at Stiles’ outfit and Stiles senses a makeover happening in his future whether he agrees to it or not. He climbs into the backseat of her car, next to Erica and they drive about 10 minutes before pulling up to a nice apartment building. Stiles just barely falls out of the car and hurries to catch up to the three girls as they walk towards the apartment building. Stiles bets that if his life were a movie, they would be walking in slow motion. They stop in front of a door that is soon thrown open and Cora is standing there, a soda in her hand, as she invites them in.  
“Laura nixed the alcohol this year since my brother and his lame friends decided to stay around for the party.” Cora smirked at Stiles, who just flashed her a smile.  
“Where is your brother anyway?” Lydia asked, pulling off her jacket and hanging it on the coat rack in the hallway.  
“Hanging out on the back patio, smoking with the boys.” Cora rolled her eyes and shared a look with Lydia.  
“Come on Stiles. I have a surprise for you.” Lydia clapped her hands before she took off walking through the apartment, Erica, Cora, and Allison pushing Stiles a long behind her.  


Lydia opened the screen door, stepping out into the cool, late summer night. Stiles could see what looked like about five boys sitting on porch chairs, smoking. One of the boys stood up, and sauntered over to them.  
“Hey Lyds. Didn’t D tell you? You guys broke up. Now me, I know how to treat a lady.” He threw his arm around Lydia’s shoulders but Lydia shrugged him off.  
“Please Jackson, D is so last year. Besides, I brought him a gift.” Stiles could hear a warm laughter coming from one of the other boys that sounded slightly familiar.  
“I already got your gift Lydia, remember?”  
“Vaguely. You weren’t that memorable.” Lydia flipped her hair over her shoulder before turning to grab Stiles’ arm. “Happy Senior Year, Derek.” Lydia said as she all but threw Stiles towards the group of boys. Stiles stumbled a little bit before looking up and noticing the guy that had been talking was now standing up and staring at Stiles.  
“Derek?”  
“Stiles?”  



	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic is rated mature for language. Also, warning, Derek is a major douchenozzle in this chapter. But like ~sexual identity crisis n shit so there's that.
> 
> Also I apologize that it's been a month since I updated. I had plans to update this at least a week later, but then 2 days after I posted, my computer started going haywire and I haven't wanted to mess around too much in fear of losing my word doc. But never fear, I have a new computer and ample amount of time AND I finished outlining the whole fic so updates should be more frequent.

Stiles froze, he couldn’t believe it. “At least you’re not 25.” He blurted out, inwardly cringing. When he had imagined seeing Derek again after the summer, that’s not what he thought he would say. He thought maybe a breathless ‘hello’ and then kisses. The statement hung awkwardly in the air; Derek wasn’t saying anything, just staring at Stiles like he had grown another head. Stiles could hear Cora snickering behind him as he floundered around for something, anything to say.

“Who’s this loser?” one of Derek’s friends (Jackson?) said, breaking the awkward silence. That seemed to pull Derek out of his awkward staring at Stiles.  
“No one important Jax” replied Derek, the sound of shock out of his voice, and Stiles could sense a tone of ‘too-cool-for-you’ in Derek’s voice.  
Stiles stepped back as if he had been slapped. Really? He could hear someone, probably Erica, in the background saying “ouch.” Ouch is right. What was this guy’s problem?  
“So not so much a summer fling, as a summer secret, Derek?” Stiles couldn’t keep the coldness out of his voice. Of course. Of course the one guy he’d like, the one guy he thought he had something special with, turns out to be a closeted asshole. Stiles wished that he had been left to thinking that Derek was in college – or older. It hurt less.  
“Summer fling?” another one of Derek’s friends piped up.  
“This kid is crazy. I ran into him like one day at the beach and then he never left me alone.” Derek said, not looking at Stiles.  
“Like a puppy?” Jackson snickered.  
“Like fleas.” Derek retorted.  
“Well. Thanks for letting me buzz in your presence, Derek.” Stiles cut in, unable to deal with everything right now. “But you were wrong and I was right, this isn’t the beginning, it’s definitely the end. Kindly go fuck yourself.” And with that, Stiles turned on his heel, pushing his way through the girls standing behind him, and walked out of the apartment. This year was going to suck.

Allison was the first to run after Stiles, not joining in as Cora glared at Derek, Erica called him a dickbag, and Lydia stood with her arms crossed and a mean smile stretched across her face.  
“I always wondered why sex with you never seemed quite right. Guess it’s because you weren’t pushing into the right hole. Or maybe you wanted to be the one being pushed into?” Lydia smirked as Derek lunged at her, only stopping when two of his friends, Isaac and Scott, held him back. “See you later boys.” She smiled again, flipped her hair and walked back into the apartment, Erica and Cora following her.  
Derek shook them off, glaring at the spot where Stiles had just been, taking a long drag of his cigarette.  
“So, something you’d like to share with the class, Derek?” Scott piped up.  
“Yeah.” Derek turned around, smiling at them. “Go fuck yourselves.” He stomped back into the apartment, ignoring the sounds of surprise from his friends. He can’t deal with this right now. He never planned on ever coming out in high school – that was supposed to happen in college where no one knew who he was before. He had been creating this image of who he was for 4 years to avoid being an outcast. And anything that makes you different makes you an outcast. Derek threw himself across his bed. Senior year was supposed to be the best and one day in and it was shaping up to be the worst year. Super.

~~

Lydia, Erica and Cora found Stiles sitting outside on the curb, his head between his legs as Allison rubbed circles on his back.  
“He was so nice this summer at the beach.” Stiles mumbled, his brain finally catching up to everything that just happened.  
“Yeah, well, finding a decent boy in high school is as useless as searching for meaning in a Pauly Shore movie.” Lydia replied, evidently not at all phased by watching Stiles be utterly humiliated.  
“Thanks, Cher.” Stiles replied, snorting a little. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to wallow in self-pity.” He started to get up, stopping only because Allison’s arm was still wrapped around him.  
“I think we all need a girls’ night. We can have a sleepover at my house.” Allison suggested.  
“Um, that’s great, but in case it escaped you, I’m a guy. I have a penis and everything.”  
“That doesn’t necessarily mean you’re a guy – some girls have penises.” Cora interjected.  
“Regardless,” Lydia cut in before Stiles could respond to that, “you just made it abundantly clear that you like guys which means you’re not going to get all ‘let me watch you have a pillow fight’ creepy – as if, on us. Besides, even if you do like girls, Derek pisses me off enough to make me want to hook up with you just to rub it in his face.”  
“Don’t worry; you guys are way too frightening to try to hit on.” Stiles replied, shuddering.  
“I’ll take that as a compliment.” Erica leered.  
“Right. So, my house?” Allison stood up, offering her hand to Stiles, pulling him up.  
“We should totally give Stiles a facial.” Cora joked.  
“I don’t think we have the right parts for the kind of facials Stiles likes.” Erica replied, laughing.  
“I don’t think we’re good enough friends yet for you to make cum-on-my-face jokes.” Stiles muttered. Erica threw her arm around Stiles and laughed.  
“We just watched Cora’s brother rip your heart out and burrow even further into his closet – we’ve skyrocketed our level of friendship.” Erica said; squeezing Stiles close.  
“Thanks for the reminder, Erica.” Stiles wiggled out of Erica’s hold as they climbed into Lydia’s car.  
“Oh Erica, leave him alone.” Allison reprimanded, shooting Erica a look.  
“Bite me, Argent.”  
“Do you want us to talk about Boyd now?” Allison shot back.  
“Fine. Truce. Whatever. I call dibs on the beanbag chair.” Erica grumbled, slumping down in her seat.

They got to Allison’s house and Stiles was ushered upstairs by the girls. Allison shut the door to her room just as Lydia started going through her closet.  
“Ok ladies. There was no booze tonight and even if there was, Stiles here had a crappy night, so time to make everything better.” She pulled out a bottle of wine from Allison’s closet, shaking it a little, grinning. Cora pulled open her purse and pulled out a box of twinkies.  
“Anyone want a twinkie?”  
“Twinkies and wine? Oh, that’s real class, Cora.” Lydia rolled her eyes as she popped the cork of the bottle.  
“It says right here it’s a dessert wine.” Cora shot back, ripping open a twinkie package.  
“I’ll pass.” Erica said, wrinkling her nose in disgust.  
“Oh man, I love twinkies!” Stiles caught the one that came flying at his face with his hand, grinning happily at it. 

They passed the bottle of wine around, each taking sips before passing it on to the next person.  
“Is anyone else feeling flushed?” Stiles slurred some time later.  
“That’s the wine, honey.” Allison replied, patting Stiles’ cheek.  
“You should take your shirt off; cool off a bit.” Erica said, grinning.  
“Promise you won’t take advantage of me?” Stiles asked as he began to pull his shirt off. “Except maybe Cora, cause she’s a Hale and Hales are pretty.” Stiles mumbled into his shirt. Erica barked out a laugh as Cora flushed red.  
“Look Stiles,” Cora started as she helped Stiles out of his shirt from where it had gotten stuck over his head. “I get that my brother is hot to you, but you can do so much better than him. He has the emotional range of a teaspoon.” Cora threw Stiles shirt across the room before sitting back down on the ground and taking another sip of wine. Stiles sighed, letting himself flop back on the floor.  
“I guess so. I guess I was right, he was too good to be true.” Stiles closed his eyes, his head swimming from the wine and the sudden change in direction of his body. He felt someone poke at his stomach.  
“Come on, let’s get you into bed.” Erica said.  
“I thought we weren’t doing that?”  
“To sleep, you creep. We don’t do sexy pillow fights here, but we all spoon. But if you snore, you’re out. One strike and you’re sleeping in the tub.” Stiles let himself be pulled up and pushed onto the bed.  
“Kay.” Stiles collapsed down onto the bed, feeling people squeezing in around him as he drifted off to sleep.

~~

After that failed attempt at social interaction, Stiles was ready to give up. He had been made a fool in front of a lot of the student body plus his new friend’s brother. If it were up to Stiles, he would hide under his blankets and never leave, but it wasn’t up to him and he still had to go to school. So Stiles would get himself out of bed, meet up with Lydia before school and avoid seeing Cora until he knew for a fact that she wasn’t with her brother. It was too soon. A week or so after the party, Lydia decided that she was sick of Stiles being mopey.  
“Come on, the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else.” Lydia explained as she typed away on her phone.  
“Yes, because obviously all the boys are lining up to get a piece of the Stilinski.” Stiles rolled his eyes, digging into his mac n cheese.  
“Don’t sell yourself short, Stiles.” Cora added. “You’re pretty cute. Maybe you’re just not looking because you’re trying not to see Derek.” Lydia put her phone down on the table and crooked her finger at someone standing behind Stiles.  
“Stiles, this is Danny. Danny, this is Stiles. Stiles, Danny is a junior and the captain of the lacrosse team and recently broke up with his boyfriend. You both need to stop moping because both of them are losers.” Lydia said in a bored voice before picking up her phone again.

Stiles gaped at Lydia for a few seconds before turning to look at this Danny kid – who actually was very attractive, and muscle-y, and looked super sweet.  
“Uh, hi. I’m Stiles.” Stiles managed to get out.  
“Danny.” Danny flashed him an easy smile for sitting down next to Stiles. “Sorry about Lydia, she’s frequently uncomfortably blunt.” Stiles flushed, rubbing the back of his neck.  
“It’s whatever. I’m kind of used to it. …So, lacrosse? What position? – I used to play back in Boston.” Soon Stiles and Danny fell into an easy conversation about lacrosse and Stiles pretended not to notice Lydia smirking across the table at him.

It got easier after that. Danny was really nice, and hot, and he seemed to have some sort of interest in Stiles. They weren’t really dating, per se, but they sat together at lunch and sometimes they held hands in the hallway, and a few times Danny would press a soft kiss to Stiles’ mouth after school. Danny had confided in Stiles that while Lydia had the best intentions, she didn’t realize that Danny and his ex-boyfriend had been together for two years and only broke up because his ex-boyfriend went off to college on the other side of the country and they decided it would be too hard right now to stay together. Stiles was ok with that, really. He and his friends had promised to talk all the time when he moved across the country, but he had barely spoken to them at all since school started – and that was just strictly platonic. 

By the end of September, Stiles felt like he was finally starting to feel comfortable. He hung out with Danny during school and every Friday night was “Girls’ Night (With Stiles!)” at Laura’s (Cora’s sister) apartment. Stiles said he never thought about Derek anymore, but that was hard to do when Danny would kiss Stiles’ cheek before getting up to get more chocolate milk at lunch and Stiles would catch Derek glaring at him from across the cafeteria. Stiles just wanted to ask him what his problem was, since apparently Stiles was a nobody, Derek shouldn’t be wasting his time staring at him. Stiles voiced this once, when it was just him and Erica at the table as everyone else was either not out of class yet or getting food. Erica stared him down, her eyes narrowed.  
“He made it clear his reputation is more important than you, so personally, I wouldn’t worry about it. But if you want, I can gouge his eyeballs out with my nails.” She smiled sweetly after that, flashing her manicured hands at Stiles. Stiles swore he could feel his balls crawl up into his stomach in terror.  
“Nevermind, it doesn’t bother me that much.” Stiles mumbled, turning back to his food, slightly less hungry at the thought of Erica going all Oedipus on Derek, except instead of pins, stabbing his eyes out with nails.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It’s never actually said, but as I implied in the first chapter, Derek and Lydia dated at one point during Derek’s junior year of high school and he and Lydia had sex. And it might seem weird to have all these people who presumably have known Derek for at least 4 years and be friends with his family to suddenly hate him and defend Stiles, someone they just met. But in my head, Erica just never really liked Derek because after Derek and Lydia broke up, Jackson used to make rude comments to Lydia about her sex life and Erica interpreted that as Derek being a dickbag and talking and laughing about it Jackson after the fact. But in reality, Derek was just talking to his best friend about how he hadn’t been with a virgin in a while and Jackson is just a bigger asshole than Derek and also that whole “pulling pigtails” kind of thing. But Erica would never explain that to Derek so Derek just knows she hates him, so he’s a dick back to her.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologizes again for the delay in between chapters....I just started a full time job about a month ago, as well as I'm still working part time at my old job, so suddenly my days of laying around reading/writing has been sucked into "well I have to go to bed in an hour so I get to pick one" and well, this never gets picked because falling asleep while reading is a lot better than falling asleep while writing. But the rest of this is outlined out and I hope to get it up...soon? No promises, because I thought I was going to post this whole thing in August and here we are.

It was a Thursday afternoon in early October when Stiles pulled up at the gas station to fill up his tank. He's mindlessly bobbing along to whatever song is in his head as he pumps his gas until his attention is grabbed by a slick black Camaro pulling up at the pump across from his. Stiles may have swooned a little bit because that car is sex is car form. He's not-so-secretly ogling it, when the driver gets out, and of course it's Derek. Stiles all but stops himself from banging his head against his car. Stiles almost wants to talk to Derek, but then he remembers – reputation and eyeballs – so instead he just turns around and pretends like he wasn't just eye-fucking Derek's car.  
“Hey Stiles.” Stiles did not jump at the sound of Derek's voice so close to him, no he did not, because Stiles is cool and suave and Derek is lame.  
“Oh, you remember me now?” Stiles mentally high fives himself for his voice not wavering. He looks over at Derek from under his eyelashes and notices that Derek has the decency to blush. Good.  
“I wanted to apologize about that. See, I have this reputation of being a womanizer, and it's not the reputation I wanted to get in high school, but you know that high school is hell if you have the wrong reputation. Plus, uh.” and Derek stops talking for a moment, fiddling with the cuff of his leather jacket, “my friends don't know that I like guys too. I just wanted to get through senior year before I can graduate and leave this place and be someone other than...this.” Derek gestures to himself.  
“Sorry I threw a wrench into your plans.” Stiles replied before hearing the click of the gas pump finishing. He pulled it out and walked inside to pay, leaving Derek standing there.  
Stiles understood, he really did. It's scary to come out, not knowing if the people who stood by you through everything would still be there once they found out. Especially in a small town where everyone knew everyone and everything about you and your parents and everyone has to put their 2 cents into every situation. Yeah, Stiles knows. But that doesn't excuse Derek for being a complete asshat about the whole thing and then waiting a month to corner him at a gas station to apologize.  
When Stiles walked back outside, he notices that Derek is still awkwardly loitering around his jeep. “You know, I always thought you were older.” Stiles starts as he walks around to the driver's side of his car, noting the way Derek's head snapped up once Stiles started talking. “Because we never talked about ages and about the fact that we were both in high school. I never said anything because I thought you were in college at least and if you found out I’m 16 I thought you would stop. And seeing you again for the first time, realizing you were just a couple years older than me and also still in high school, for a moment, everything was awesome.” Stiles smiled, a big smile, like he used to do every day at the beach with Derek. And for a moment, Derek smiled back, the same way, until Stiles let his face harden into a frown. “But now, now I wish you were in college – or older. Because then you’d be charged for statutory rape because the age of consent in California is 18. And then my dad would have to arrest you and I would sleep better at night knowing I don’t have to see you in the hallways at school, flirting with all the girls and awkwardly staring at me in the cafeteria. Have a nice life, Derek. Apology not accepted. And Erica says that if you keep creeping on me, she will gouge your eyeballs out with her nails. Your sister agreed to hold you down. Leave me alone.” And then Stiles got into his car and peeled out of the gas station as fast as his jeep could take him. He absolutely did not look at Derek's face behind him as he left, nor did he stop driving when he felt the tears on his face halfway home. Stiles kept driving, kept going, until he was safe in his room, crying into his pillow because he said it but he didn't mean it. Well, he meant it, but not really, because he still cares. Stiles still cares so much about Derek but he finally realized that he can't, he can't care about Derek anymore because Erica is right – Derek cares more about his reputation than he ever will care about Stiles. And while part of Stiles really wants to call the girls to come over and bring him ice cream and bitch about how horrible Derek is, Stiles really doesn't want to have Lydia see him cry. 

~~~

It felt like since that talk at the gas station (which he gave the girls spark notes version of what happened – and Erica was highly upset that she missed the showdown), Stiles didn't see Derek anywhere, like Derek was avoiding him, which is what Stiles had asked. But it was still weird, especially since Stiles was always over Cora's house. Homecoming is fast approaching and now Stiles has more to worry about other than not looking for Derek – dates. Stiles feels like the whole school is in a tizzy about it. And before, it never really mattered to him, but Stiles really wants a date if not to prove to Derek that he's over him. (He's not, he's so not over Derek. But he told Derek he was, and he's told the girls over and over that he is and now he just needs to fool himself into thinking that he is. How hard could getting a date be?) Turns out it's hard to ask a guy out because Stiles has never ever done that before and he's starting to think that he'll make it through his sophomore year of high school still never asking anyone out because nope – that is too much pressure.  
“Just ask Danny to go to the dance with you. I don't understand your weird courtship rituals with him, but you guys kiss sometimes so you're kind of dating aka take him to the dance.” Erica broaches at lunch one afternoon as she drops her tray onto the lunch table, startling Stiles out of his pondering.  
“So why can't Danny ask me?”  
“Because he's waiting for you to ask him, to set the pace of the relationship.” Lydia replied from behind Stiles, causing Stiles to jerk in surprise, before setting her lunch tray down next to Stiles', and effortlessly sliding next to Stiles and avoiding Stiles' flailing limbs.  
“What does that even mean?”  
“Have you ever been in a relationship before?” Cora asked as she plonked down next to Erica, pulling her lunch out of her backpack.  
“Um...define 'relationship'” Stiles blushed.  
“How have we made it this far, throughout everything that has happened in Stiles' love life this year, and we're just now learning he doesn't know how to ask a guy out?” Allison asked, pushing Stiles over more into Lydia so she could sit down.  
“I also don't know how to ask out a girl.” Stiles pointed out, unhelpfully.  
“Wow. That means my brother has game. Who knew?” Cora mused out loud before realizing that that was probably as unhelpful as Stiles last comment. “Sorry. I wasn't thinking.” Lydia rolled her eyes before cracking her knuckles and turning her stare onto Stiles.  
“Ok. So you need to learn how to ask someone out. How about you pick someone to practice on?”  
“Ok, but who – because I can’t fathom trying to pretend to ask any of you guys out because you’re too much like sisters to me and also you would be terrible to me no matter what I say because I know you, Erica Reyes – also get your paws off my fries.” Stiles swats his hands at Erica, trying to get her away from her fries, causing Lydia to roll her eyes again.  
“Please, we're never horrible to you, Stiles.” Lydia commented.  
“Last week I was late for first period because you decided to come over and pick out my clothes for me and berate me on my sense of style.” Stiles deadpanned.  
“But Danny said you looked hot that day, right?” Allison interjected, most unhelpfully, as this lunch seemed to be going.  
“Stop trying to be helpful.” Stiles mumbled while Lydia looked smug.  
“Just practice on Laura. She thinks you're adorable but she also doesn't have as much love for you as we do so she'll pretend like she wants to date you.” Cora said, munching on her apple.  
“Thanks. I think?” Stiles ducked away as Erica leaned across the table to ruffle his hair, and the rest of lunch passed on with talk of dresses and who's house to go to for prep before, and who's house to go to for the after party. 

~~~

Friday comes and Stiles finds himself squished in between Erica and Allison, with Cora in the front seat and Lydia driving, as they go to Laura's apartment for Stiles' experiment. Lydia parks her car and they all tumble out, laughing and joking. Stiles can feel himself tense up the moment they're standing in front of Laura's apartment, because the last time he was here, his whole world was turned upside down in the worst way.  
“Come ON, Stiles!” Cora pushes Stiles forward until Stiles feels his feet moving on their own and the five of them end up in front of Laura's door.  
When Laura opens the door, Stiles takes one look at her and blurts out “I can't ask her out! She looks like Derek, but with better skin care!”  
“That's cause Derek is my brother, you know, genetics?” Laura says carefully, as if she's talking to a child. “I thought he was supposed to be smart?” Laura then laughs and grabs Stiles' hand to pull him into her apartment, the girls coming in behind them.  
Laura offers them all drinks and snacks and they all grab a plate before piling onto her couch to talk about different approaches Stiles could use. After about a half hour, Lydia claps her hands and says it's time for Stiles to take the training wheels off and just suck it up.  
“Ok but you guys can't be in here while I do this.”  
“What? Why not?” Erica pouts.  
“Because! You'll laugh! At make crude comments! And fuck up my suave technique!” Stiles points at Allison, Erica, and Cora respectively as he speaks.  
“Guys, he's right.” Allison says, smiling when Stiles mouths 'thank you' at her.  
“What a buzzkill.” Erica rolls her eyes before getting up off the couch.  
“Whatever. I want more food anyway.” Cora starts walking towards the kitchen, the rest of the girls following her, but not before Erica slaps Stiles' ass, wishing him good luck.  
Stiles rolls his eyes fondly at them before turning around to face Laura. They're standing face to face and Stiles reaches out to hold Laura's hand, their fingers intertwining.  
“Ok. No laughing. This is serious.” Stiles says.  
“No laughing. Got it. Show me the Stilinski charm.” Stiles rolls his eyes before looking into Laura's eyes.  
“Laura, I know we've been seeing each other for awhile and it's hard to go on real dates since we're in high school, but I was wondering if you would like to be my date to homecoming.” Stiles asks.  
“Oh. Hi Derek.” Laura replies.  
“Um, not the reaction I was going for – ” Stiles starts before Laura nods her head in the direction of the door and Stiles turns to see Derek standing in the hallway, staring at Stiles and Laura holding hands. “Oh. Hi Derek.” Stiles says awkwardly as he lets go of Laura's hand and all but pushes her away. “It's not what you – ” Stiles starts again before Derek turns on his heel and storms out of the apartment. It's quiet for a moment before Laura bursts into laughter.  
“Oh man, this is GOLDEN!”  
“What just happened?” Stiles is still trying to put the pieces of what the HELL just happened.  
“Oh my god. You're trying to get over my brother by getting under someone else, but you just fake asked me out before you try for real to ask the person you're trying to get under, out, and Derek just heard that and thought you were asking me out.” And then Laura starts laughing again, collapsing against the couch.


End file.
